Weird XFX 6600GT Issues - Nvidia Sentinel

[kooky_guy]

Hi Guys,

Got a weird problem that is really starting to annoy me. Had a XFX 6600GT for about a year and performance wasn't as good as I expected. Bought another one so that I could run them in SLI mode and almost immediately began getting Nvidia Sentinel Low power warnings. Finally tracked the problem down to my original card. Sometimes it would report low power at bootup and other times it would be fine. The new card never has this problem (Been running them individually to investigate this problem).

I've RMA'd the original card to XFX and they can't find anything wrong with it so they returned it, but it now reports low power at every boot. I think this card has always been slightly dodgy as the new one scores at least 700 points more in 3DMark 05 than the old one ever managed.

I've checked the PSU (600W Enermax) and its chucking out 12.25V on the 12V rails, although the motherboard only reports 11.84V. I really don't think it's a power issue or a motherboard issue as the second video card works fine all the time. I've flashed the Bios in the original card so that they're both the same with no effect.

Can anyone suggest anything else to try? All XFX can suggest it trying it in a different computer, which I can't do and don't see how it would help in any case.

Basically I've got two XFX 6600GT cards. One works and one doesn't.

Spec is:
Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Memory: Corsair 1GB DDR XMS4400
CPU: AMD 64 3000+ (Winchester)
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 600W
Drives: Hitachi SATA2 250Gb, and a couple of IDE drives.
Pioneer DVR-109 DVDRW, Yamaha CDRW, Floppy
PCI Cards: Linksys wireless card and Videologic SonicFury sound card
O/S: XP Pro SP2. Direct X 9.0c

Best Regards

Guy

 

[Mitch007]

I would try both cards in each slot independantly and swapped, if you still have an issue insist on replacement, check the RMA terms and conditions, I bet they a legally required to replace the card you have for a new one.
Request from them the info they need from you to verify your findings!

You may be required to run a system check or reporting software like softsandra with results file, or they may have a some test code you can request....put the ball in their court. Not a great help on the issue, but push for resolution.

Oh yeh another thing, keep moaning/complaining...... post on their web site, customer service site...

 

[kooky_guy]

Hi,

I have tried both cards in all combinations that I can think of. Whenever the original card is in the system in whatever slot, I get the Nvidia Sentinel low power warning. The new card on it's own never gives this warning.

XFX support claim that they have tested the card in three different machines in both single and SLI coimbinations with the same drivers and don't get any errors. I did suggest to them that a straight replacement might be simplest (and cheaper for them - surely extended testing is expensive!) but unfortunately they didn't agree and sent it back with no fault found, suggesting I try it again!

They have since suggested I send it back again for retesting, but I can't see what this will prove.

The only thing I can think of is that the defective card is about a year old and the working one is almost new. There must be some incompatibility somewhere but I can't think what else to try.

Guy